Five Social Media Marketing Mistakes Companies Make

Recently I was interviewed about social media marketing mistakes for an article on Newsday.com. The article is now published online and a couple of my comments are included:

Companies need to get more out of social web sites

I like to prep for interviews so I don't come off sounding hesitant or inarticulate. Here are five mistakes I identified that some companies make when it comes to social media marketing.

1. No blog. Many people have been asking why they need a blog if Facebook and twitter are so popular. Well, your blog is YOUR real estate on the web and Facebook and twitter belong to those companies. You are at the mercy of the powers beyond your control. What if a platform gets hacked, goes down, is sold and shut down? It's important to a presence on diverse social platforms so if one site goes down, you still have other avenues of communication. Your blog is your home base and that's where ultimately, you want to funnel your friends and followers.
2. Mixing business and personal. While revealing your human side is critical to building trust and relationships, it can be confusing for your followers when you mix business and personal content on social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn. One way around this on Facebook, for example, is to keep your personal profile personal for friends and family, and set up a Fan Page to connect with clients, customers, vendors, colleagues and prospects.
3. Lack of integration. To be efficient with your time and energy, it's important to link your social sites together. You're attracting different people on different platforms and you can increase engagement when you let them know how they can connect with you on other platforms. And, of course, you want to make sure your blog posts - your most valuable content - is being pulled into all sites where it's allowed so you can draw people back to your home base.
4. No consistent image. For the purpose of developing your online persona , you want all your sites to have a consistent image and that includes the picture you use as an avatar. When someone finds you on LinkedIn and follows a link to your blog, you want them to feel confident they've landed in the right place and you're giving them a congruent experience.
5. Continually pushing your message without participating and conversing. Give before you get, as my colleague Kathleen Gage often says. It's about the conversation and in the end the conversation builds the relationship, the trust and the confidence to do business with you.

What mistakes would you add to this list? This is an evolving environment and we're all learning best practices for using blogs and other social networking sites for business. Would love to hear your ideas for best practices and mistakes to avoid.

UPDATE: follow up post on How Personal Should You Get in Social Media?

Related Post:
Fast Company Interview on Business Blogging - I finally hit the big time!

Comments

[Joseph Ratliff]

Good post Denise.

This is my first time reading your blog...and I'd like to add one to this list IMHO...

Lack of genuine conversation. This means genuine conversation to the core of "who" your company is...so the public can really have a conversation with your company.

One example of not being genuine is when a company seems to have a blog "just so they say they have a blog." It may not be the intention of the particular company, but the perception delivered to the public is what counts.

[Marilyn Moran]

Great insight, Denise.

I would also add infrequent activity or giving up too soon & abandoning social media efforts. I think it's a big mistake. Persistence and commitment are key!

[twitter.com/AngsCopywriting]

Businesses often equate 'trendy' with 'profitable'. They make the mistake of thinking that just because a particular network or site is popular that it will be the perfect spot for them.

They need to look at the demographics of each site and find ones that are important to their clients and industry before jumping ahead, joining a ton of sites, and trying to keep up with them all.

Angie Haggstrom
Senior Copywriter & Founder, Angie's Copywriting

[Social Media]

Your article is very informative. It discusses social media and how it affects internet businesses. These mistakes should be avoided at all costs. Social media is an effective way of growing ones business. It is just important that they learn how to maximize it.

[Julie Bonn Heath]

I don't agree that every business needs a blog. Although I recommend one for 85% of my clients, many wouldn't benefit from one. Especially if it will end up an abandoned one due to lack of material, time, etc.

I also disagree that mixing business and personal is a bad idea. The very nature of social marketing requires some personal in order to be the most effective. People want to get to know "the real you" to a certain extent. It is a fine line and one must be careful (on both sides) but it is also the reason for the "about me" pages that are now standard on websites. The most effective social marketing campaigns also have some personal included.

I agree with the other points made and also the comments. Genuine is VERY important and not giving up is also of essence. A social audience takes time to build and it may take a few months or more to see results from it. However, they will come if a campaign is worked well.

(Sorry for the length of my comment!) =)

@juliebonnheath

[Denise Wakeman]

Joseph, you make a good point about the type of conversation a company should engage in on their blog. In my opinion, the blog author really needs to be engaged, not a ghost blogger. It's pretty easy to tell when the "voice" of the blog is someone who isn't truly engaged with the audience.

[Denise Wakeman]

I agree 100%. My mantra is that you've got to be "consistent and constant" for a blog to truly be effective and get results.

Blog on!

[Account Deleted]

Great post. I have found having a blog to be an essential part of my business model and marketing. On the "personal and business mix" in most cases I completely agree.

Until I had a recent personal experience that literally "stopped me in my tracks" I didn't see much benefit in sharing too much personal information.

However, I have recently been able to share something personal and how it relates to business.

What is most interesting is how many of my readers have followed the progress of my personal experience with great interest (my broken ankle) and how I have incorporated the experience with lessons of running a business.

Little did I realize how many similarities there are to breaking a bone to a broken business. And the process of healing also has many similarities. Such as "when something is broken it won't be fixed in a day."

The point here is, there needs to be a point in sharing something personal rather than simply saying, "This morning for breakfast I had....." Unless one is a nutritionist who cares.

Your point on Lack of Integration is so true. Many people have a hit and miss approach to using their blog. The most beneficial thing one can do is to have a plan of how they will integrate everything together. The results can be incredible.

As always, very informative and timely post Denise.

Kathleen

[twitter.com/TerriZSoloCEO]

Like Julie and Kathleen above, I disagree that mixing personal and business is a bad idea. However, the mix that you have needs to be a balance that you (and your intended audience) feel comfortable with. For example, until recently I cross-posted all my tweets to my Facebook account; however I use Facebook for both business and personal friends...and the latter were getting overwhelmed by my prolific tweeting on business topics! So I've switched that up -- I still put some business on my Facebook page, but I'm particular about what I'll talk about. Same with putting personal stuff on Twitter. And I now have a Facebook Fan Page where I do post all of my business stuff (it's new, so sorry for the long URL: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cary/Solo-Ecom-The-Solo-Entrepreneur-Lifestyle-via-Multiple-Streams-of-Income/215115655555).

On the topic of pushing message vs. conversation, I'd go farther and say it's not enough just to converse and then intersperse a selling message...the conversing needs to add value and be much more often than the selling. I like Michael Port's 80-20 rule as a guideline -- at least 4 value tweets to every 1 selling tweet.

One more that I'd add: not being "social" enough -- and social means including other people! Give credit to others, compliment their contributions, invite them into the conversation. Retweeting is a great way to do this!

[www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=647172779]

I think the key is consistency. Blog regularly and about topics that will interest your target market. Don't go too far off course or leave sizable time gaps between blogs. Each blogger should have their own viewpoint and personality - there's no reason to be uniform and boring, but there should be general agreement about what the blog subjects will cover and who will speak out as an expert on each topic. This goes for microblogging (Twitter) or Facebook updates as well.

I actually rarely mix personal with business online - I guess I'd rather spend my personal time do something in the real world! Thanks for a great post.